More than 50 million children across America returned to school this fall, a good thing, so now is a good time to consider how much we spend on public education and whether we're getting good value for that money. This big-picture view is disheartening.
How much does K-12 public education in America cost? One way to answer that is to look at direct taxpayer expenditures on education. In July, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that the average per-student expenditure in public schools was $8,310 in the 2003-04 school year. State's per-student expenditures ranged from a high of $13,338 in New Jersey to a low of $4,991 in Utah.
Altogether, spending on all elementary and secondary education topped more than $500 billion in 2003-04, or about 4.7 percent of the entire economy as measured by GDP. The U.S. spends more on K-12 education than the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, or Sweden spends on everything.
Based on the most recent per-pupil expenditure figures, the average student enrolled in public school for the next 12 years can expect to have about $100,000 spent on his or her education.
And what we are getting for all that money? Despite this considerable investment, many students will not receive a quality education. More than a quarter of all eighth-grade students scored "below basic" in reading on the 2005 NAEP exam, which by the government's definition means that they are not able to "demonstrate a literal understanding of what they read" and "make some interpretations."
In Oklahoma a full 28 percent of eighth-grade students scored "below basic" in reading. Nationally, one in five eighth-graders scored "below basic" in math.
In Oklahoma nearly two in five eighth-graders scored "below basic."
Poor test scores are just one bit of evidence of widespread underperformance. According to the Department of Education, the national high school graduation rate is 73 percent, and some researchers argue that even this estimate is too generous. Whatever the exact number, it is disturbing that so many American students fail to earn a high school degree.
Failure to graduate comes at a substantial cost. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the average full-time worker who did not graduate from high school earns $23,400 annually, versus $30,000 for a high school graduate. That's a 29 percent pay cut. And an average full-time worker with a bachelor's degree earns $52,200 per year -- or more than twice as much as the average high school dropout.
The Census Bureau projects that a high school dropout who works full time will earn $1 million over his or her lifetime, while a high school graduate will earn $1.2 million. A college graduate can expect to earn $2.1 million. Clearly, education pays, and stopping short can be expensive.
Another growing cost of our failing public education system is remediation, which is the burden that other institutions like colleges and businesses shoulder to help people develop the basic skills they should have learned in primary or secondary school.
The Department of Education reported that 100 percent of all community colleges and 81 percent of four-year colleges offer remediation. The Mackinac Center for Public Policy estimates that remediation costs colleges and business in just the state of Michigan approximately $600 million per year.
If the other 49 states and the District of Columbia are anything like Michigan, the country spends tens of billions of dollars each year making up for public schools' shortcomings. And then there are the opportunity costs of public education. An opportunity cost, as economists define it, is the benefit forgone by choosing a particular course of action, as opposed to an alternative. How much stronger would the American economy be if the billions spent on public education actually bought our 50 million schoolchildren a high-quality education?
And what about the toll the current education system levies on the lives of the children it disserves? No dollar figure can make up for a lifetime without even a basic education.
Politicians and lawmakers tend to get mired in the details of legislation and so rarely step back and look at the big picture. We won't see widespread improvements in American education until we as taxpayers begin to recognize the costs of the current American education system and demand something better.
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the way to solve this is consolidation of school systems
fewer systems will lead to lower administraion costs which will allow more money for better teachers, improved texts and equipment, and a better quality education.
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Thank you for this commentary! It has the potential to be extraordinarily thought provoking, depending how taken. Whether for sake or distraction, one might narrowly argue statistical merits or achievements and failures within the US educational institution. The alternative is we choose to debate the broader picture painted before us.
Americans have been given a beautiful thing and this piece represents a perfect case in point on the importance of proactivity and critical thinking necessary to functional democracy. The caveat- it only works when we thoughtfully take the reigns. For some, to whom this is most important, it may not be completely clear, at least first pass. Though the goal is to reach enlightenment.
You have certainly highlighted some disappointing aspects and failing within the system. However, it does not mean that it is, as some may note, a responsibility or fault of "the system". Actually, quite the contrary.
For 'We the people', own the system. We collectively hold the keys and it is everyones' duty, together, to direct the system and lead the way to greater knowledge.
For those we've placed at the helm, who may lead us astray, let it be known that We are the navigators.
That if We are dissatisfied with the journey, We have the power to take the wheel and 'waken the slumbered. It's time to interrupt the sleepy, mass media message and again encourage original thought. We hold the ultimate responsibility to assure our ship sails the desired course. If we sink, we have collectively failed and have ourselves to blame.
It's time to organize, talk with city counsel, call the county commissioners and write to state representatives. It's time to get off the couch!
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It seems to this non-teacher that the teacher can only educate the student presented to him or her by the family, the community, and the society. Teachers are not substitute parents, nor should they be. I am a grandmother with custody of an 11-year-old granddaughter. Her parents, one of whom is my child, never married. Her father contributes nothing, not even his presence, to her life. She has seen him a grand total of one time. Her mother decided, when my grandchildren were 9 and 2, that she just wasn't "maternal" and walked out, leaving those children in my care. Fortunately, for my younger grandchild, his father, a Norwegian national, arrived immediately with his wife and 3 older children ... after a 3-week get acquainted visit, my grandson departed for Norway, where he lives today, in the home of his parent, a responsible and loving father, and an equally loving and responsible stepmother(something most of us wives could not quite comprehend doing, by the way) and three older and doting half-siblings. But my granddaughter has neither, only two old grandparents doing their best. She has an acute understanding of how much HER parents do not want, nor love her.
What is the school to do with what they are presented in this specific case? Or any other of the many variations on this? They can only attempt to educate what is brought to them. And education is very difficult when what they get is a child poorly, if at all, parented. Poor parenting, by the way, can come from all economic levels and all social classes. When we outfit our child's room with the latest and most expensive "in" things and do not make time in our busy lives to know what they are doing and to guide and lead them, we are a poor parent. When we allow their only influences of acceptable behavior and codes of conduct to be the latest Hollywood iteration of manliness or womanliness, we are a poor parent. The latest "reality" show will not present much of a guide on how to live a life. When we allow our daughters to dress as if they had a commodity for sale (themselves) and when we advocate a get-ahead-at-all-costs-and-be-damned-to-those-might-need-our-help, we are not being a good parent, nor a good role model. The life we live is the only guide our young children have ... give them a poor example and they will simply move on to peers who are even poorer examples as they get older.
"Things" are no substitute for us, parents and grandparents. And parents who do not understand that for at least 20 years, parenting ... hands-on, total, and involved, is your PRIMARY job, then we will send children off to school as handicapped in the education process as if they could not see, could not hear, could not think, and do not feel. They especially do not feel loved, treasured, and PARENTED.
We do not issue a license to permit becoming a parent, thus anyone can do it and easily. It is probably the most important job most of us will ever have, and for 99.9% of us, our only legacy. There is no bigger failure than as a failure at parenting.
The teacher can only teach what they have been given. They cannot create out of cloth that has been neglected, mistreated, and non-parented.
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Educators, particularly professors of education who have taught in European and American universities for more than the last 100 years, made extravagant claims about the nectar of education. A few drops properly administered would transform our society into something unbelievable. It has.
John Dewey and his educational progeny followed in the footsteps of the Platonic ideal but couldn’t read the leaves. They assured us they would “humanize” society which meant to inculcate humanistic ideals. The experiment has not simply failed but utterly failed.
The cocktail served and sipped slowly over the years has anesthetized the American population. They continue to look for the next expert, guru, or savior and helplessly stand by. The educational Sophists of our age continue to practice their rhetoric on the front stage and with dedication on the backstage where it counts the most. Societal morals have crumbled underneath the enormous weight of humanity’s goodness and progress. Ideas have consequences.
Plato thought the “noble lie” was permissible for the good of society. Perhaps it’s time to face reality.
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Two issues with this article:
First: The article places the responsibility for student failures on the schools. This is naive. The problem runs far deeper that just the schools. Television, the internet, the breakdown of communities, and the videogamecentric nature of our culture are all part of the problem. The problem is cultural.
Yes, there are some failings in the schools. But most of those problems are brought into the schools. They don't originate there.
Second: The article reports,
"In Oklahoma a full 28 percent of eighth-grade students scored "below basic" in reading. Nationally, one in five eighth-graders scored 'below basic' in math.
In Oklahoma nearly two in five eighth-graders scored 'below basic.'"
This is flat-out wrong. "Two in five" is 40 percent. "One in five" is 20 percent. So 28 percent is closer to "one in five" than to "two in five."
By choosing to say "...nearly two in five eighth-graders scored 'below basic,'" the author is making a very misleading statement. Whether by design, or because of mathematical deficiencies, the author is creating a false impression in the minds of his readers.
This is unprofessional at best.
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Schools are actually doing quite well in some areas, though poorly in others. The statistical averages do not make distinctions. It would have been nice if the writer could have looked a little deeper, but ideology repels depth and subtlety. When schools perform poorly, it is usually because they are in areas where they are asked to remedy a host of ills that having nothing to do with formal education (e.g., substitute parenting, discipline, crowd control, and even basic nutrition). Demanding that teachers and schools to do more is futile until we ask ourselves, as parents and community leaders, to inspire and manage our children.
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